COP28 Declaration is Good News for Tea Smallholders | Sun Garden Tea Merges with QTrade Teas | It’s Easier Now to Attend Chinese Tea Tradeshows | Goodricke Group Achieves Carbon Neutral Tea Production
In the 1990s and early 2000s, curating a catalog of 200 direct-sourced teas, establishing a small chain of neighborhood tea shops, launching a formal tea school, and selling tea online to people worldwide was pretty ambitious. Twenty-five years later, Montreal-based Camellia Sinensis, having survived pandemic peril, has emerged with vigor in a configuration admired for its innovative approach to experiential retail. Camellia Sinensis even helped finance a factory in South India to produce tea on demand. Partner Kevin Gascoyne joins us during the company’s 25th Anniversary year to share valuable insights and a few missteps while traveling a long path to success.
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Kevin Gascoyne on the 25th Anniversary of Camellia Sinensis tea in Montreal, Canada
Nepal-based civil society group Digo Bikas Institute holds an action on loss and damage during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) at Expo City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo by Christopher Edralin UN/COP 28
UN: Bring the Vulnerable to ‘Front of the Line’ for Climate Funding
By Dan Bolton
A Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action adopted by 134 delegates to COP 28 UAE will provide $2.5 billion to address agriculture-related climate issues.
The declaration was accompanied by the announcement of several related initiatives, including a $200 million agriculture-related research partnership between the UAE and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment Mariam Mohammed Almheiri said, “Countries must put food systems and agriculture at the heart of their climate ambitions, addressing both global emissions and protecting the lives and livelihoods of farmers living on the front line of climate change.”
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, some 3.5 billion people, nearly half of humanity, live in areas highly vulnerable to climate change. OCHA climate team head Greg Puley told the conference’s participants on Monday that it was a “grave injustice” that people on the frontlines of the climate crisis who were least responsible for it, too often found themselves “at the back of the line” for climate funding.
Commentators and agriculture experts say COP 28 recognized the important link between food and climate in the declaration. Delegates affirming the statement represent 5.7 billion people, including 500 million farmers. The UN Conference of Parties resulted in the Paris Accords in 2015, signed by 200 countries that agreed to limit long-term global temperatures from increasing above 1.5C. Temperatures currently stand at 1.2C compared to pre-industrial times. Estimates suggest temperatures will increase by 2.4C to 2.7C by 2100. The window for keeping within the 1.5C limit is “rapidly narrowing,” according to the UN.
Unilever called for urgent climate action. The company, still a major player in tea, has a visible leadership role in investing in renewable energy, switching to low-carbon feedstocks as alternatives to fossil-fuel-based chemicals, and pledging to protect and regenerate 1.5 million hectares of land, forests, and oceans by 2030. The company said it is already sourcing 93% of its electricity from renewable sources.
“The world isn’t reducing emissions quickly enough to meet global targets and avoid climate breakdown,” writes Unilever, adding that it “calls on governments attending COP 28 to increase ambition and accelerate actions urgently, we can go further, faster in the race to net zero.”
COP 28 Advisor Edward Leo Davey told VOA that genuine implementation of the declaration “will represent a significant positive step forward in the lives of smallholder farmers.”
Farmers were encouraged to adopt sustainable practices, including organic farming and agroecology, to reduce harmful agrochemicals, conserve water resources, and protect soil health.
Episode 146 | COP28 Declaration is Good News for Tea Smallholders | Sun Garden Tea Merges with QTrade Teas | It’s Easier Now to Attend Chinese Tea Tradeshows | Goodricke Group Achieves Carbon Neutral Tea Production | PLUS Kevin Gascoyne. a partner at Montreal-based Camellia Sinensis shares valuable insights, innovations and a few missteps blazing a 25-year path to success. | Episode 146 |
Goodricke Group Can Now Boast Carbon Negative Status
Goodricke Group Ltd. recently announced the results of a carbon emission study in its five Darjeeling gardens and has announced that they are carbon-negative. The independent study showed that 11,026 tonnes of CO2 were absorbed by the agroforestry in these gardens as opposed to 1,732 tonnes being emitted. The company, which produces 700,000 kilos of tea from Darjeeling each year, is hoping this will add greater market value and a price premium as a climate-conscious single-estate tea.
Plucking Ends in North India for the Winter
The Tea Board of India has announced the last date for plucking tea leaves for the year as December 11th for Darjeeling, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand and December 23rd for the Dooars, Terai, and Bihar. Processing dates are December 13th and December 26th, respectively. Plucking will continue uninterrupted in the south.
One more Dooars Tea Garden Closes
Rheabari in the Jalpaiguri district of the Dooars saw overnight closure by the management. The estate has about 1,750 workers. The Telegraph reported that the management had recently asked workers to move to 8-hour work days, 1 hour longer than the current work day. The workers who worked two shifts, 7 am to 11 am and 1 pm to 4 pm, did not accept this. The state labor office has taken cognizance of the situation and is working to reopen the garden.
The defiant American colonists in December 1773 who cheered the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor by 150 patriots in disguise were witnesses to history. The loss infuriated Parliament, which passed the punitive Coercive Acts of 1774, closing Boston Harbor and repealing Massachusetts’s colonial charter until the cost of the tea was reimbursed. Known as the “Intolerable Acts,” these measures convinced colonists to take up arms, leading to the deadly confrontation at Lexington and Concord, New Hampshire, that began the American Revolution in April 1775.
The year-long commemoration of the Boston Tea Party counts down to a grand-scale live reenactment on December 16 with special exhibits and artwork, virtual presentations and webinars, theatrical performances, and the dumping of a thousand pounds of loose-leaf tea (no tea bags) donated to the Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum.
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Tea Historian Bruce Richardson on the 250th Anniversary Celebration of the Boston Tea PartyAuthor and tea historian and Elmwood Inn Fine Tea founder Bruce Richardson
Mighty East India Company
By Dan Bolton
Bruce Richardson, “The Tea Maestro,” has shared his love for tea with the world for 30 years. Bruce, a classical musician and baritone soloist from the state of Kentucky, said that in 1995, he “put down my baton and picked up a cup of tea to travel the world.” His son now operates the importing and blending company that he founded.
“So now I’m probably best known as the roving ambassador for Elmwood Inn Fine Teas,” he said. Bruce has written hundreds of articles and authored and co-authored 14 books, including “The New Tea Companion” with Jane Pettigrew and A Social History of Tea: Tea’s Influence on Commerce, Culture, and Civility. He is an authority on tea culture who speaks frequently in public and is widely quoted in the national press and television. He has served as tea historian and Tea Master for the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum since 2011. Who better to recount the momentous decision to defy the British King and Parliament by tossing 340 chests into the sea, lighting the fuse of rebellion 250 years past?
“When we talk about the Boston Tea Party, we want to put it into historical context, what was happening both in Europe and the colonies at that critical point around 1770 until the time of the Tea Party, which was 1773.”
– Bruce Richardson
Dan Bolton: Will you explain tea’s central role in the confrontation between the colonists and the King?
Bruce Richardson: When we talk about the Boston Tea Party, we want to put it into historical context, what was happening both in Europe and the colonies at that critical point around 1770 until the time of the Tea Party, which was 1773.
Many people don’t know that America was just as much in love with the ritual and tea ceremony as their cousins back in London, Bath, or even over in the Netherlands.
The ladies of Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and South Carolina were enamored by the tea ritual. They had furniture specially made in their living rooms to entertain their friends and have tea. So, this was what got us into trouble.
King George III says, “The ladies of Boston will pay anything for their tea.” He later regretted saying that because he lost one of his greatest colonies over a cup of tea.
In the 1770s, Boston was consuming copious amounts of tea brought in on board merchant ships — and some illegally. The only tea that could be brought in was through the Honorable East India Company, incorporated by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600.
The problem began with the taxes on tea being so high that the price was going up and up. The Dutch saw an opportunity to undercut the East India Company by smuggling tea into the colonies. So, by 1770, the British East India Company was about to go under, and they told Parliament it looked like if “John Company” went under, the government would go under, and the banks would collapse.
“We are a company that’s too big to fail,” they said.
So, Parliament gave them the option of having a clearance sale on the tea piled up in their warehouses in London.
All that tea came from only one country, China; no tea was grown in India then, and there was no tea in Sri Lanka. The Japanese were growing tea, but they weren’t exporting it.
So, all the tea that went into Boston Harbor or the teacups of Jane Austen all came from just one country, China.
The tea was coming into the London warehouses but wasn’t going out fast enough. So, it started to pile up and get old – it had a shelf life. So, Parliament, even though deeply indebted, said it would allow the East India Company to ship 544,000 pounds of tea out of its warehouses to the colonies without paying a tariff.
On September 27, 1773, seven ships started to leave the Port of London on their way to the colonies. Now, they weren’t just going to Boston; they were also going to New York, Philadelphia, and all the way down to Charleston, South Carolina, because these were the major tea-drinking cities of the Americas. So, the ships left and made their way over to the colonies towards the end of the year.
On November 30th, the first ships started arriving in Boston; four ships were sent to Boston – showing you how much tea was being consumed then. One Boston-bound ship, the William, was lost at sea. One ship arrived at each of the other three cities.
Well, Boston pretty much had to make the decision. The other cities said, “Well, Boston, it’s up to you. If you take this tea in, fine. If you don’t, we will follow your lead. Whatever you do, we will follow.”
The Polly landed at Philadephia and was turned around, fully laden, and sent back to London. The same fate awaited the late-arriving Nancy, bound for New York. Charleston seized the cargo of tea and placed it under guard in the Customs House.
The tea coming in was actually cheaper than previous shipments because no tariff had to be paid to Parliament. There was, however, a small tax that the government retained on tea to pay for royally appointed governors in the colonies.
And so that’s what was the rub. That was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.
Once people learned the tea was coming, they got together almost weekly to talk about what would happen with the tea. It all came to a head on December 16 of 1773 in the Old South Meeting House. Thousands of people crammed into that square around that building to decide what to do. They couldn’t make a decision. The ships were sitting in the harbor. Everything had been offloaded except the tea. And finally, Samuel Adams said, “We can do no more.” And that was, we think, the signal for his people he organized to go down and destroy the tea.
And that’s what happened over the next two and a half hours. Tea valued at nearly 10,000 pounds went into Boston Harbor that night. Today, the value would be well over a million dollars.
Faneuil Hall
Reenactment of the meeting of the Body of the People
Patriots and Loyalists
British Troops gather at the Post Office
Crowd cheer Huzzah as the tea at Griffin’s Wharf is thrown overboard.
Witness the 250th Anniversary Reenactment
On December 16, 2023, Boston will commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a moment that forever changed the course of American history. On this day, the collaborative efforts of multiple organizations will culminate in a grand-scale reenactment of the Boston Tea Party. A full evening of reenactments will play out in 4-parts across the City of Boston at several historic locations.
Dan: Several different teas went overboard that night. Will you describe them?
Bruce: One of the questions I get often is, was that brick tea? We know it wasn’t tea bags, but not brick tea. It was all loose-leaf tea. All the brick tea went the northern route, through Mongolia on camel’s backs and horses, to make its way to Europe. Loose tea came through the East India Company. So that’s what went overboard that night.
It’s interesting that the tea went into the harbor at low tide, maybe two and a half feet. And all that tea started piling up alongside the ships. And men had to go out in rowboats and with their oars to knock haystacks of tea down to get it into the water to be destroyed.
When I talk to audiences anywhere, they are always fascinated to know this tea comes from only one country, China, but also that of the five teas tossed overboard. Two of them were green teas. And three of them were black teas.
The major portion of the 340 chests, and when we say chest, we mean a large wooden case that held this tea, often lined with moisture out. The chests could weigh anywhere up to nearly 250 pounds. So those all had to be hoisted up out of the ship’s hold and broken open to destroy them.
They held five different teas; we know what they were because the East India Company assembled an invoice over the next few months listing all the different teas by category, how much each weighed, and how much value they all had because they wanted reimbursement. So, the main portion was bohea, a black tea from the Wuyi mountains. The other black tea was Congou, a very well-made black tea, and then the third one was Souchong (today we know as Lapsang Souchong and then the two green teas were Hyson green tea and Singlo from the Sunglo mountains of Fujian Province.
Dan: The Tea Act allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly to loyalists, cutting out colonial merchants and leading to a boycott of tea. Destroying the tea cost the British government, but local merchants in all the colonies also lost significant revenue because drinking tea was suddenly unpatriotic – only loyalists drank it.
Bruce: The arrangements through Parliament, through the East India Company, to go through the people who were loyal to the King. These were all loyalist merchants who would receive this tea; it wasn’t just the common everyday merchant down the street. And that, again, was another thing that rubbed colonists the wrong way.
Bruce: It wasn’t patriotic to drink tea after the 1773 event, but even leading up to that, people got together and signed letters saying they would no longer drink East India Company tea. This caused a problem because they still had all the tea-making apparatus. They still had beautiful teapots and teacups. And the ladies of Boston wanted their tea times. So, they went out into their gardens and orchards to find whatever they could to go into those teapots to make something colored water they could serve. So, you had a great advance in people drinking herbal or fruit teas at that time. They called their teapots Liberty teapots. These teas were called Liberty teas because they contained none of the tea that George III consigned.
They were making a statement about not drinking Chinese tea anymore.
Dan: None of this tea was shipped directly from China to the United States; it was sent to London, weighed, taxed, and stored before sailing six weeks across the Atlantic. This meant the tea was never as fresh as tea shipped directly to the colonies by the Dutch.
Bruce: There was never a direct shipment of tea from China to the Americas until the first January after the United States was formed. The very first ship, the Empress of China, that left the port of New York bearing a flag of the new United States, traveled to Canton, loaded with all the American black ginseng they could find in the colonies. And guess what they traded it for? They traded it for tea. And so a huge amount of money was made on that very first shipment of tea back to the United States.
Dan: It turns out there was a huge market for the 242 casks of New England and Appalachian ginseng. American ginseng was so popular in China that that continued for decades.
Bruce: Indeed, the Chinese could never get enough ginseng. They were delighted to have it. And, by the way, they said, you can take all this tea back with you.
Patriots toss the King’s tea overboard. Photo courtesy December16.org
Dan: Let’s flash forward. This is a delightful opportunity, a first glimpse or prelude to the nation’s 250th anniversary. In two weeks, everyone in Boston will turn out to watch the reenactment. The Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum has been collecting tea from donors to toss overboard. Will you share some exciting things that will make this a fun and authentic celebration with listeners?
Bruce: The Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum started a dozen years ago because the mayor asked, “What’s the most iconic event in our history… And we don’t have a museum to interpret that?”
Even before they poured the first concrete, they came to me to say they wanted to get the story right. We want to know what the origin of the tea was. We think that’s important for our museum.
So, I’ve been with them all those years, and we have the museum there rising out of Boston Harbor. We have two ships that are replicas of the ships that were there in 1773. People can go through an interactive display and immersion into the days of the colonists, go into the hold of these ships, and actually see one of the tea chests that was broken open in Boston harbor. We even have a vial of liquid tea made the next morning from some of the tea leaves that washed up on shore. Over two million people have come through the museum and finished drinking tea in Abigail’s tearoom overlooking Boston Harbor, where they can taste the five different teas tossed into the harbor that night.
So, in Boston on December 16 of this year, the entire weekend will have events that will have reenactments of the Old South Meeting House of the discussions going on between the city leaders and the people who were or just adamant about throwing the tea overboard. And then we’ll have Fife and Drum Corps and bands, all leading people in parades down to Boston Harbor.
The Boston Tea Party ships museum will set up viewing stands, and we will re-enact the Boston Tea Party once again, with tea going overboard. We had over 1,000 pounds of tea going into Boston Harbor that night. We have a certificate signed by the cities that says we can put tea into the harbor now because it’s illegal to dump things like that into the harbor. But we’ve got it all taken care of. Tea is highly biodegradable and there are no tea bags. Everything must be biodegradable.
Bruce: Most colonists really didn’t want to separate from England. They just wanted representation if they were going to pay taxes, they wanted to have a representative in parliament that looked after their needs. So it wasn’t until this event, the Boston Tea Party, that the tide started to change, and people like Samuel Adams started to think, well, there’s no going back. We’ve gone too far; we might as well just go ahead and form our own country.
If it had not been for the Boston Tea Party, the separation may have come, but it may have come years later than when it did.
Interactive displaysParades, fifes and drumsCostumed actorsA full-scale replica of the ship that sailed the Atlantic bringing tea to the colonies.Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
Historical interpreters, interactive exhibits, full-scale replica 18th-century sailing vessels, and historic artifacts are just some of what you’ll experience during your visit. Ticketed museum experience includes sections 1-5. Sections 6 & 7, the museum gift shop, and Abigail’s Tea Room are open to the general public without a museum ticket.
Share this post Episode 145 | On December 16, 2023, Boston will commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a moment that forever changed the course of American history. On this day, the collaborative efforts of multiple organizations will culminate in a grand-scale reenactment of the Boston Tea Party. Author and tea historian Bruce Richardson, “The Tea Maestro,” has served as Tea Master for the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum since 2011. A renowned storyteller, Bruce recounts the momentous decision to defy the British King and Parliament by tossing 340 chests of tea into the sea, lighting the fuse of rebellion 250 years past.
Coca-Cola is set to launch a ready-to-drink tea range in India under its brand “Honest Tea.” The first two teas in this range are green tea blends – Lemon Tulsi and Mango. The tea itself will be sourced from the Makaibari tea estate in Darjeeling, which Luxmi Estates owns. The original Honest Tea was a bottled organic tea company founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff. Coca-Cola paid $43 million for a minority share in 2008 and acquired the company in 2011. In May 2022, the company announced it would stop manufacturing the hot-brewed bottled tea, which generated more than $500 million in sales at 140,000 stores at its high point in 2018.
Assam Tea to be Marketed by Patanjali Ayurved
Assam’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has sought assistance from Indian spiritual guru Baba Ramdev, who runs a popular FMCG brand, Patanjali Ayurved, to promote Assam tea. Patanjali was launched in 2006 and has built its brand around herbal and natural products. It has a current market share of 8-9% and a market capitalization of $5 billion. This week, Indian media reported that Patanjali would soon add Assam tea to its product portfolio, which is reportedly to help Assam tea access a global market and reduce the threat of Kenyan and Sri Lankan tea to Assam’s tea industry.
Two Dooars Tea Gardens Reopen
In October this year, 13 tea gardens closed in the Dooars following their inability to meet the bonus agreement of 19% with trade unions. This week, two gardens, Samsing and Banandanga-Tondu, were reopened after being shut for 49 days. The Telegraph reported that Samsing has 1,460 workers and Bamandanga-Tondu has 1,174 workers. The state government secured an investor for these two estates and moved to reopen them. The new owner, Rittick Bhattacharya, was quoted as saying workers would be given a bonus of 9% and that wage dues would be cleared soon. The state minister for tribal affairs and backward classes welfare has said that efforts will be made to reopen other closed gardens in the region.
Tea is well suited to experiential retail, a type of physical retail marketing that offers customers experiences beyond browsing. Tea retailers worldwide are experimenting with sophisticated sampling, live music, art, interactive displays, video walls depicting growers in the tea lands, and even making cameras available for customers to record and share experiences. Experiential tea retailers play an important role in converting commodity tea drinkers to informed enthusiasts.
Paper & Tea’s lofty ceilings and large windows have a captivating effect on passersby attracted to their brightly lit interiors, colorful displays, and a wide variety of fine teas to sample. Eduardo Molina, Head of Tea Experience at P&T, explains, “Our main idea, when somebody steps into one of our stores, is for customers to live an experience they will always remember — an experience they will share with others.” Molina is responsible for creating an alluring experience for every customer visit.
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Eduardo Molina is the Head of Tea Experience at Paper and Tea.Eduardo Molina, Head of Tea Experience, P&T
P&T is Not Just for Tea Drinkers
By Dan Bolton
Eduardo Molina, 37, is originally from Chile, a narrow coastal country whose people drink more tea than any country in South America. Eduardo embraced the tea-drinking culture, discovering his passion for tea working in hospitality at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Santiago in 2007. He has since traveled extensively in the tea lands. “The culture and history of tea is fascinating,” he says. His special focus is training. “I love training people how to present, sell, and tell stories about tea,” says Eduardo. He has ten years of retail experience, including three years as the co-founder and tea sommelier of Adagio Teas in Chile. He taught at the Chilean Tea Academy and joined P&T in Berlin in May 2018 as product manager for new business development. As Head of Tea Experience, he is responsible for marketing the new properties and training staff. He leads the team that created the in-store experience at every location, including the company’s soon-to-open 31st store.
“At Paper & Tea, we create open spaces that celebrate community, where everyone is invited to share ideas and discover the beauty of life. We value quality, aesthetics, mindfulness, and artistry and want to offer products, experiences, and services that put a smile on your face.”
Dan Bolton: Why would someone operating a tea shop consider experiential retail? What benefits does it hold?
Eduardo Molina: It depends a lot on the kind of product that you are offering.
Not every product can be described as one of the best to put on a show, which is what we are trying to do in our stores.
When somebody steps into one of our stores, our main idea is to live an experience they will always remember — an experience they will share with others. We want them to say, “I had the most amazing experience.”
And that starts with welcoming. We hire “personalities,” so to speak —people who are easygoing, smiley, and full of good energy. Not necessarily tea-drinking people.
We are opening on the main streets in downtown locations where there is a lot of flow and a lot of people passing by, which is also a positive thing; it leads to the success of these openings.
We do have a lot of tea nerds joining our team, but for us, it’s not a requirement to drink tea. We know we will convert them anyway the same way we attract them. Yeah, it’s a given. Being inside of this environment will turn you into a tea drinker anyway.
Browsing is nothing new for someone who enters a store and tries on shoes, a T-shirt, or a sweater.
To be effective, you need to make a difference and that difference usually occurs with the body’s sensors. For example, when smelling something you haven’t smelled in a while, or when you smell something that reminds you of a moment you lived in the past, or when you taste something you have never tasted.
We play with those things as we welcome somebody in the store (or grab them from the street). We attract people with the whole design of our stores, which are very inviting, warm, and welcoming.
Our windows are very bright and positioned so that you can see inside the store, see what is happening, and awaken curiosity.
Once they are in, the process starts with a welcome tea we created.
So, we have something in every store right now. We have opened 28 in a year — 28 in six countries. So, it’s been crazy since almost every second week, there is an opening.
In the center of every store, there is the tea bar — I know, I know, having a place to taste tea is not a groundbreaking idea — but the way we present it can be described as “very deliberate.” We are a modern company. Paper and Tea is 12 years old. So, we’re not a 150-year-old company. We’re not a traditional tea house.
We are not a tiny house or a Japanese tea house. We are a European company run by young people. We want to create a contemporary concept. We want people to enjoy tea. We want people to bring tea to their lifestyle and make it part of their normal lives.
We want to make tea a part of their daily routine.
Paper & Tea Storefronts
P&T Amsterdam, Netherlands
P&T Utrecht, Netherlands
P&T Bonn, Germany
P&T Munich, Germany
Dan: I see your point about bright windows and an inviting storefront. Who is attracted to that? And why do you think they come into the store?
Eduardo: It’s someone who likes pretty things, somebody with a certain level of curiosity; we’re not a place only for tea drinkers. We believe we have the challenge of creating new tea drinkers. We want people to walk into the store, and even if you don’t drink tea, you will start because you feel that the atmosphere is so nice and want to be part of it.
I’ve seen a lot of people who say they don’t drink tea, but they buy a cup of tea, and they go home and say okay, I want to re-live the experience.
I want to do it with my friends because I’m surprised I want to do it with my family. So it’s also like a little chain effect. For every store that has opened, the escalation has been exponential.
Every week, more people come back because they heard about us from a friend or saw on social media that we were close by. It’s a very nice feeling that happens in the stores.
We have to recognize we are in the process of doing this.
People have come to me and said, ‘Paper and Tea is doing pretty well because you’re opening so many stores.’
“We are basically building the plane while we’re flying, we’re still creating new concepts, and there are still a lot of standards to be established, which can be seen, of course, as a downside. But on the other hand, for somebody who has the energy to create something from scratch, it’s also very motivational.”
It’s like, no, no, we’re not doing well. Yet. We have an idea. We have a commitment. We put ourselves to the challenge. And we believe that people have to experience tea. It doesn’t matter how beautiful our website is; you must experience, smell, and taste it. And that’s the reason why we’re opening stores.
We want to be on every corner to have the chance to make you live the experience of drinking or preparing tea or talking to you.
And that’s why we’re opening so many stores in strategic locations.
Dan: Talk a bit about how you operate a store. You must invest in training staff skilled in tea and in helping customers understand how tea works so that they have interesting stories to share when they leave the store.
Eduardo: Exactly, absolutely. Tea is a product that offers the possibility to create this moment and make people leave these unique experiences. But it’s also a very complex product. To make those experiences possible, you need knowledgeable people who understand the product and the nuances.
We have roughly 80 different teas, 60% pure teas, and 40% blends. We have teas from 12 different origins and many different regions within those origins, so there is a certain degree of complexity. We manage it through a lot of training.
The centerpiece of each store is a tea bar. “I know, I know, having a place to taste tea is not a groundbreaking idea,” says Molina, “but how we present the tea is different. I describe it as “very deliberate.”
We see our stores as more than just a shop where you go in and buy tea; for us, it’s a space where you can have these experiences. We look for people who have worked in hotels and restaurants. Maybe they don’t have selling experience, but we need this blend of people who may be very good at communication and selling. We need people who move very confidently behind the bar because the whole preparation will only impress if it’s done with confidence — and if you know what you’re doing, if you know the steps, and if you do it naturally.
Dan: Will you explain how changes in customer behavior have helped make this concept work?
Eduardo: I’m not German, so I’ve been trying to get to know German consumers. As you say, they have a very specific taste for herbals and fruit blends. Everything that happened with Corona brought a different consideration regarding what I’m drinking, what I’m eating, and what I’m consuming. Consumers ask, Is it healthy? Where’s it coming from? More and more, these kinds of questions are relevant for consumers.
We are listening, observing, and asking, ‘What kind of customer is coming into the store? What questions do they have? It’s super interesting because Paper and Tea, from a year ago, we had only five stores in Germany.
The customers we were targeting then were customers with a big interest in certain teas. They were looking for something specific for something unique.
Our concept has changed and evolved a little bit. And now, because we want to talk to more people, and talk to people who don’t know tea because we want to bring them in here. We currently have stores in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Denmark. Their past dealings with German retailers were influenced by the fact Germany was one of the biggest Darjeeling buyers. They are, and I wouldn’t say they are over that, but now the Germans are also willing to try new varieties along with the Europeans. One of our stores’ most beloved varieties is Japanese green tea. We have a very nice selection of Japanese green teas, including Matcha, which you mentioned is very popular in the stores. Usually, when visiting the store, I get to prepare maybe 10 or 15 matchas, so we put up a big show at the bar. And then we show everybody how to improve it. Actually, the whole matcha market has exploded here for us. I am not a wholesale tea buyer for Paper and Tea anymore, but while I was doing it before expansion a year ago, we would sell out in a quarter of what we planned to buy for the whole year. It was crazy and extremely hard to plan. Germans are still big herbal drinkers, but they are very curious and are willing to explore new things thanks to tourism. I mentioned that Japanese green teas are very popular, but customers are seeking the benefits of drinking something healthy, that’s a big concern. And so that’s also a big priority for us as well. We are not a pharmacy, and we’re not a drugstore, but to be responsible for what we serve, we offer third-party certified teas and carefully explain how the teas are made.
Tea bar at P&T in Kurfürstendamm, Berlin
Dan: So, let’s talk about the downsides. There must be additional costs. How do you recover the added expense?
Eduardo: So there is a lot of time invested in training. A lot of resources must be invested for a store to fully run. And be confident that the store can function independently without somebody being there.
Rotation (turnover) is pretty big. So sometimes it happens that you invested in training, and then people don’t stay. It’s part of the business. We know how it is. So we always try to be one step ahead and make the best conditions for workers.
We are basically building the plane while we’re flying, we’re still creating new concepts, and there are still a lot of standards to be established, which can be seen, of course, as a downside. But on the other hand, for somebody who has the energy to create something from scratch, it’s also very, very motivational.
If you visit the “old” new stores, I say that because it’s the first one we started opening a year ago, and you visit a store that opened last week. You notice the difference because, in every store, we were learning. There has been a lot of trial and error. And I think that has given us an extremely good experience. And now we feel like we’re each time we’re closer to how it’s supposed to be, we’re not quite there. We’re excited that we’re not quite there yet because it would get boring.
Dan: Teabag prices can’t cover the cost of the kind of service, the more expensive locations, and the training. Merchandise certainly plays a part. How much do you have to charge to make it work?
Eduardo: I have to admit, I’m not the person who sets the prices. There are a lot of pricing strategies, but as you say, what we charge is not the price of the tea. What we charge covers the whole experience. When you go to a Michelin-star restaurant, it’s not the little piece of avocado you get but the way it’s presented, how it’s served, how it was kept before; it’s the whole experience you’re paying for.
We want to talk to everybody about tea. We want to bring new people into the world of tea. So, within our assortment, we have different lines and categories. There are teas that are, of course, more affordable for beginners. We call these Master Blends. The price of a tin depends on the tea variety, but roughly between 70 and 100 grams cost 15 Euros.
So I don’t know how much that is in dollars.
Dan: It’s pretty much one-to-one right now. (EUR1.00=USD1.09) What’s the price of your most expensive tea?
Grown in Korea’s Hadong Mountains, this black specialty tea relies on a unique double oxidation, rounded off by intensive roasting, for its sweetly smoky umami flavors. The resulting tea’s strong character and special aroma make it particularly suited for fine cuisine. € 59 | $65 for 60 g
Eduardo: I think right now that might be a Korean black tea that we have. And that would be roughly, I would say, a Euro per gram. A tin of 60 grams is roughly 60 euros. And that would be the top.
But we’re working on some other things that might be remarkable.
PAPER & TEA HAS A MISSION To enrich life. With a positive view of life, we bring people and places together in joyful moments.
Specialty tea elitists founded Paper & Tea (P&T) in 2012. Instead of locating their first storefront along Berlin’s busy Ku’damm (Kurfürstendamm), they chose Bleibtreustrasse in the quiet, affluent Charlottenburg neighborhood. Charlottenburg, established in 1705, was an independent city until 1920 and is known for its elegant, historic architecture and high-end boutiques.
P&T was never “staid” in the British connotation, manifesting in stores like the fabled Fortnum & Mason (founded 1707). Nor did P&T feature the popular apothecary-like retail “walls of tea” consisting of large tins from which tea was weighed and dispensed. The selection of paper products (notebooks, art prints, greeting cards, and pencils) conveyed a premium shopping experience.
P&T’s Berlin staff differentiated the store in a crowded market by brilliantly curating handcrafted teas from distant tea lands. The tea was displayed on shallow trays in small glass boxes, inviting consumers to sniff the aroma and study the dry leaf before sampling.
Reviewer Aarti Mehta-Kroll, in the publication Slow Travel Berlin, wrote in 2013 that the one-year-old P&T was one of Berlin’s “classiest tea houses,” likening the décor to that of a natural history museum.
She wrote that “ethically produced ceramics from Japan and Taiwan” are displayed on brightly lit minimalist shelves.
Notes describe each tea’s origin and unique characteristics. Tea is sold in 9, 20, 45, and 95-gram portions at prices that range from 8 to 60 Euros for 100 grams. “Korean teas are amongst the more expensive ones as they are mainly produced for local markets and are difficult to import,” she writes.
“In addition to the pure teas, one can also find a selection of hand-flavored teas by local suppliers using natural ingredients. A third unique offering is the infusions: lavender, mint, green rooibos, and ginger,” she wrote.
P&T’s catalog presented a winning combination, then and now.
BIZ INSIGHT — There are fine tea shops in every major city in Germany, with 3,804 tea companies in total. Berlin accounts for 8% market share (303 companies). Hamburg follows with 208 companies and a 5% market share. Consumers purchase 12.4% of the country’s tea at local and chain shops, including TeeGschewendner and Tee Ronnefeldt. Food retailers and discount stores hold a 57.5% market share, according to Deutscher Tee & Kräutertee Verband. In contrast, in the US, 80% of tea is purchased at grocery outlets, and only 7% of tea is sold at specialist tea retailers, according to German-based Statista market research. — Dan
Photos courtesy Eduardo Molina and Paper and Tea, Berlin
Share this post Episode 144 | Paper & Tea’s lofty ceilings and large windows have a captivating effect on passersby attracted to their brightly lit interiors, colorful displays, and a wide variety of fine teas to sample. Eduardo Molina, Head of Tea Experience at P&T, explains, “Our main idea, when somebody steps into one of our stores, is for customers to live an experience they will always remember — an experience they will share with others.”
